BIG BUST

Sunday, June 21 to Tuesday, June 23. 

No, we didn’t have a Dolly Parton sighting.  The big bust was Big Bend.  We left Fredericksburg west on 290, relying on Gertrude to lead us eventually to SR41 to ultimately connect with US377 and then south to Del Rio, TX.  One of the intermediate waypoints we programmed was the tiny hamlet of Mountain Home.  Gertrude totally screwed up, turned us down a farm road, and announced “You have reached your destination.”  Say, what?  We were nowhere.  Nothing.  We used the sun to navigate south and after many turns found our road, and Mountain Home.  5 miles from where Gertrude said, and on the other side of the I-10.  One of these days we’re going to be in big trouble following that broad.  Along the way we kept seeing weird antelope that didn’t seem to belong here.  Then we saw all the signs advertising “exotic game hunts” and realized these ranches were stocking African goodies for the gunboys to slaughter.  Yuck.  We also came upon our first border patrol checkpoint. Guess we looked harmless as they just waived us through after asking if we were citizens.  Now I know how to smuggle lots of aliens in an RV. 

Del Rio is a strip town, with all the businesses stretched along the main highway.  And all of those businesses appear to be chain franchises so it’s a good thing we carry our own and feed ourselves.  What Del Rio does have is the Amistad National Recreation Area consisting of the huge Amistad Reservoir which has large open areas and lots of inlets.  It’s an incredible amount of water in what otherwise is desert. Some nice housing developments border parts of the reservoir with $$$ views.  We stopped only to gas up in Del Rio, then headed NW on US90 to our camp for the night at Seminole Canyon State Park.  Quite nice, set up on a hilltop, with 50 mile views and the best night sky we’ve seen thus far on this trip.  As Carl did NOT say, “Billions and billions!”  We also spotted some giant luminescent critter flying around.  Not your garden variety firefly, this sucker had a long lighted body.  My googling suggests it was some sort of beetle.  We asked the rangerette the next morning, but she didn’t have a clue.  It’s also the home of the killer centipedes. As with all Texas parks, this one had great bathrooms and showers.  We’re getting spoiled.  So much better than California parks.

Monday morning we continued west on 90, across the Pecos River, to the town of Langtry and the home of Judge Roy Bean, “The Law West of the Pecos.” There’s a small museum, and you can walk through his original courtroom building and home, which he called his opera house.  He had an infatuation with Lily Langtry, whom he had never met, and had written many letters inviting her to visit the town he claimed to have named after her and his “opera house.” The town actually was named after an engineer.  Bean died nine months or so before Langtry did actually visit.

We stayed on 90 to the town of Marathon, where we turned south on US385 to wards Big Bend, through the Santiago Mountains with views of the Sierra Del Carmen off to the left.  I had never thought of there being mountains down here, but the whole area is mountainous, including the Chisos Mountains right in the heart of the park.  The drive into the park has some nice views, and as long as we stayed in the RV with the air conditioning it was fine.  We got to the Panther Junction headquarters and found the only campgrounds are 14 miles or so further down on the river (that’s good, as it was the Rio Grande we came to see.  Down we went, descending a thousand feet or so, and came upon the Rio Grande Village campground.  Hmmm.  Where’s the river?  Well, gosh (I said something else), the campground is not actually ON the river, despite a promo photo I had seen.  The camp was a large parking lot affair, and it seemed we were the only fools to elect to camp in Big Bend in June, which as it turns out is the hottest month.  No place to go, so we paid up and hooked up and got the air going.  Off to find the river, which actually wasn’t far off, but completely hidden by impenetrable undergrowth.  Our map showed a boat ramp, so we hiked that way and eventually found a path through the brush and there it was.  All of 25 feet wide and brown as mud.  Actually, it WAS a river of mud.   The camp brochure warned against swimming in it as it had pathogens, and said it was so gritty that you could hear it sandblast your hull if in a metal boat.  All in all, a big disappointment.  As it turns out, the actual Rio Grande dries up almost entirely before entering the Park.  All the water we see here comes from a Mexican river that empties into the streambed about 30 miles to the west.  This is one ugly ditch, and no reason to make a journey of any length.  Sometime in the middle of the night, another rig pulled in an set up, so we’re not the only ones.

Tuesday morning we packed up and went out to an overlook about five miles away.  It didn’t overlook, much except the Mexican town across the river.   One of its artists apparently waded over and has set up an honor-pay stand of his/her wares. After this, we began the long climb out of the river area and then out of the park, heading for the Balmorhea (Bal’moray) State Park which sports one of the largest spring-fed pools in the world, covering more than 2 acres.  We could use a little fresh spring water action in this 100 degree heat.  First, however, we went on the mother of all roller coaster roads, SR170 through the adjacent Big Bend Ranch State Park.  Yeegods.  We’d plunge down and then swoop up so that you couldn’t see anything but sky out the windshield.  Had to take it on faith we were still in our lane and no one was in ours.  A wild road.  Then it was up 67 through the town of Marfa where they filmed the movie “Giant” way back when. Not much there all these years later.  then it was up 17 to Balmorhea and the wonderful spring water pool.    Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.